Making background dark

[drumsolo]

After using levels and curves my images look very grey and washed out. What is the best way to darken the background so its more natural looking? 

 

Many thanks

[uhb1966]

Hi Drumsolo,

you could move the black point up -> set the curve for the darkest areas (on the left ) to zero. But be careful-if you overdo it the background gets "clipped" , ie an unnatural total black. So start careful

[drumsolo]

Sorry I'm still leaning to use these tools properly. Do you mean select a point at the bottom of the curve then move the curve?

[uhb1966]

Yes- but on second thought it might be better to just "flatten" the curve on the left side so that no clipping occurs.

[Davey-T]

You can measure the background sky level using the eyedropper sampling tool in P'Shop try to end up with a value 20 / 25.

Dave

[ollypenrice]

I think the best way is to keep an eye on the black point as you do the stretching. So after a stretch is applied look in at Levels again every time. Keep a reasonable length of flat line to the left of the histo peak because many processing procedures nibble into the black point anyway. But don't end up with the histo peak half way over to the right. Something like this is healthy.

It's a good idea in Ps to have some background sky markers in place (Eyedropper tool set to Colour Sampler with a 3X3 or 5X5 sample.) I keep the background at about 25/25/25 till the last operation when I bring it down to 23/23/23 by moving the black point in a bit.

Crossed with DaveyT here!

Olly